Home networking over coax is a known technology which has vast commercial potential.
The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (“MoCA™”), at its website mocalliance.org, provides an example of a suitable specification (MoCA 1.0) for transmitting digital video and entertainment information through coaxial cable deployed in a building, home or other structure or region. The specification has been distributed to an open membership.
MoCA 1.0 is but one example of a suitable home networking technology. MoCA and similar technologies tap into the unused bandwidth available on deployed coax. More than 70% of homes in the United States have deployed coax. Many have coax in one or more primary entertainment locations, such as family rooms, media rooms and master bedrooms. MoCA or other suitable technologies allow homeowners to utilize the coax as a networking system and to deliver other entertainment and information programming with high quality of service (“QoS”).
The technology underlying MoCA, for example, provides high speed (270 mbps), high QoS, and the innate security of a shielded, wired connection combined with state-of-the-art packet-level encryption. Coax is designed for carrying high bandwidth video. Today, it is regularly used to securely deliver millions of dollars of pay-per-view and premium video content on a daily basis. The MoCA network, or other similar suitable networks, can also be used as a backbone for multiple wireless access points used to extend the reach of wireless communication throughout a home.
MoCA, or other similar suitable technologies, can typically provide a consistent, high throughput, high quality connection through deployed coaxial cables to video devices in the home without affecting the analog or digital services present on the cable. MoCA provides a primary link for digital entertainment, and may also act in concert with other wired and wireless networks to extend entertainment throughout the home.
MoCA works with access technologies such as ADSL and VDSL services or Fiber to the Home (FTTH), that typically enter the home on a twisted pair or on an optical fiber, operating in a frequency band from a few hundred kilohertz to 8.5 MHz for ADSL and 12 MHZ for VDSL. As services reach the home on via xDSL or FTTH, they may be routed via MoCA technology and the in-home coax to the video devices. Cable functionalities, such as video, voice and Internet access, may be provided to homes, via coaxial cable, by cable operators, and use coaxial cables running within the homes to reach individual cable service consuming devices locating in various rooms within the home. Typically, MoCA type functionalities run in parallel with the cable functionalities, on different frequencies.
Coax infrastructure inside a house typically includes coaxial wires and splitters. Splitters used in homes typically have one input and two or more outputs and are designed to transfer signals from input to outputs in the forward direction, or from outputs to input in the backward direction and to isolate splitter outputs and prevent signals from flowing room/outlet to room/outlet. Isolation is useful in order to a) reduce interference from other devices and b) maximize power transfer from Point Of Entry (POE) to outlets for best TV reception.
The MoCA technology is specifically designed to go backwards through splitters (insertion) and go from splitter output to output (isolation). All outlets in a house can be reached from each other by a single “isolation jump” and a number of “insertion jumps”. Typically, isolation jumps have an attenuation of 5 to 40 dB and each insertion jump attenuates approximately 3 dB. MoCA has a dynamic range in excess of 55 dB while supporting 200 Mbps throughput. Therefore MoCA can work effectively through a significant number of splitters.
MoCA is a managed network unlike some other home networking technologies. It is specifically designed to support streaming video without packet loss providing very high video quality between outlets.
Digital cable programming is delivered with threshold Packet Error Rate (PER) of below 1e-6. The home network may preferably have similar or better performance so as not to degrade viewing.
The disclosures of any publications and patent documents mentioned in the specification, and of the publications and patent documents cited therein directly or indirectly, are hereby incorporated by reference.